Paradigms and Flat Tires

Years ago, our daughter, Brittany, biked into town and back. Town for us is about 3 miles away…so figure two ways and a little biking in town and you have about 7 miles total.  When she got back, Brittany was completed exhausted and at 16 or 17 years of age, my wife Amy and I both thought – yeesh, she’s pretty out of shape! We didn’t share that with her, but were a little concerned. It should not have been that hard. Well, that’s the story we told ourselves because it’s the one we thought we had right.  We didn’t.

A week or two later my wife and younger daughter, Madison, went for a bike ride. Madi took Brittany’s bike. As they were trekking around the neighborhood with no hills, Madi was clearly huffing and puffing. Hmmmm.  It took a bit, but after getting home, my wife and I realized the tire on this bike – the one both Brittany and Madi were using, was pretty flat. We never noticed while they were riding.

Have you ever tried to bike with any pace or power up a hill on a relatively flat tire? How about pushing through sand on your bike? Yeah…not very easy, no matter what shape you are in. What we thought were two out-of-shape teenagers turned out to be one very dysfunctional bike.  In fact, when I took it out and discovered the flat tire, I gained a new appreciation for Brittany having busted out 7 miles on this thing! From abysmal to highly impressive! What a paradigm shift!

I wonder what other, incorrect stories I’ve compiled on others, perhaps even myself, based on the wrong paradigm. 

Probably does make a lot of sense not to take everything at face value. Might do well to do some digging – to gain the proper understanding, perspective and hopefully arrive at much more fair and accurate conclusions.

Could be some of the problems with some social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter….